View full sizeJennifer Brown/The Star-LedgerA security guard allows groups of people waiting in long lines into an unemployment office in Jersey City in 2009.

TRENTON — More than 30,000 New Jerseyans found jobs last month in the biggest hiring spree since federal officials began keeping track of the figures in 1990, the state Labor Department reported today.

In a bright spot after months of sluggish economic growth and job losses from Hurricane Sandy, the state’s unemployment rate inched down to 9.6 percent in December from 9.7 percent in November, officials said.

The monthly report showed employers added 30,200 workers to their payrolls, with gains spread across all of the state’s major industries.

For Gov. Chris Christie, December was a "historic month" that validated his economic policies, although Democrats played down the jobs gains and insisted the state’s overall economy was still suffering.

"The Democrats will see the rain coming out of the sky no matter how bright the sunshine is," the Republican governor said.

The preliminary figures did not break down how many new hires were tied to recovery and rebuilding efforts in the wake of Sandy, and economists cautioned the unemployment figures might be revised once a clearer picture emerged.

Sandy had "very little" effect, Christie said, because the federal government had not yet approved the $60.4 billion aid package that the House completed on Tuesday and that is expected to energize the regional economy.

Overall, he said, New Jersey added 48,000 jobs last year, making 2012 the best year for the state’s labor market in a decade.

Video: Gov. Christie responds to most recent jobs numbersGov. Chris Christie responded to a negative unemployment report for December, 2012, by saying that 30,000 new private sector jobs were created in December and that he has "no idea what the unemployment rate means." Video by John Munson/The Star-Ledger

"When you have the best single month of private-sector job growth since they’ve been keeping these statistics, which is 1990, I have to say, there’s no other way to define that but success," Christie said at a news conference today. "Do I wish it was more? Sure. It’s never going to be enough as far as I’m concerned."

Nonetheless, Senate President Stephen Sweeney played down the surge in hiring, and said Christie had not worked hard enough to lower the state’s unemployment rate, one of the highest in the country.

"Enough is enough already," Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said in a news release. "When is the governor going to come up with any kind of plan to put people in this state back to work?"

He urged the governor to take action on a package of jobs bills proposed by Democratic lawmakers.

Christie called Sweeney’s comments "asinine" and dismissed the jobs bills proposed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature as "ridiculous."

As for the employment figures, all nine major industries in the private sector posted job gains in December, while the public sector shed 700 jobs.

The sharpest increase was in the trade, transportation and utilities area, with 6,000 new workers. The construction industry added 4,300 employees.

Joel Naroff, an economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Philadelphia, said the unemployment figures needed to be examined carefully because the giant storm that devastated parts of New Jersey could be making it more difficult to collect accurate information.

"Most economists who are looking at the state’s economy are assuming that there will be on net a positive impact on the state because of Sandy, but none of us were expecting to see so much of it so soon," Naroff said. "Normally these kinds of gains would be seen in the context of strong national growth."